Encounter (10)

The compass rotated and finally stopped at a certain direction. Li Zhaoyue took He Shuyu's hand and walked towards the glowing spot.

But an accident happened. Instead of getting out, they fell into another nightmare.

This seems to be an abandoned house. A casual glance around shows broken windows and thick dust everywhere. The yard is overgrown with weeds, and sometimes even various insects and snakes fly through.

But the red lanterns placed in the corridors and hanging from the eaves showed that the place was not deserted. The large Chinese character "囍" (happiness) affixed to the lanterns was particularly eye-catching.

An evil wind blew, and the already shaky lantern fell down with a snap, landing right at He Shuyu's feet.

"What kind of family would hold a wedding at night? And in such a shabby place."

He Shuyu frowned, poked the almost burnt wick with his sword in disdain, and said.

Li Zhaoyue said nothing, but subconsciously touched the longevity lock around his neck, but missed.

He Shuyu noticed her movements, retracted his sword, and said casually, "Today I saw Xu Xing holding your longevity lock. How long have we known each other, and you've already given him this rare item?"

"I forgot to ask him for it." She recalled the scene of that day and said, then raised her eyes and asked uncertainly: "Did you hear any crying?"

As if to verify the truth of her words, a faint mournful crying sound floated in the air, like a cat's cry, or like a person crying.

He Shuyu heard it and clenched the sword in his hand.

"From now on, don't stay too far away from me." She said as she protected Li Zhaoyue behind her.

Li Zhaoyue was stunned for a moment, then followed her obediently. The two of them walked along the corridor towards the direction where the crying sound came from.

To the right of the corridor were rooms one after another, all with their doors tightly shut and pitch black. But if they looked closely, they could detect faint lights, as if monsters were hiding behind the doors, watching them.

Li Zhaoyue stuck close to He Shuyu and walked forward fearfully, but outside a room, he sensed the breath of the longevity lock.

Just as she was distracted, the tightly closed door suddenly opened, and a pair of hands reached out and pulled her into the room.

Bang! The door closed immediately, and just as Li Zhaoyue was about to scream, her mouth was covered.

"Li Zhaoyue!" He Shuyu's hurried shout was blocked out, and heavy breathing sounds came to his ears.

She turned around with difficulty, but under the candlelight, she saw a pair of cold eyes.

"Shh." Xu Xing made a gesture to her to keep quiet and immediately blew out the candle.

The room fell into darkness again, and He Shuyu's voice slowly faded away.

Instead, there was a heavier breathing sound.

Not Xu Xing’s.

Looking at Li Zhaoyue's frightened eyes, Xu Xing pried open her clenched hands and lightly wrote a few strokes on them.

Dream beast.

She had heard Wang Kun say that this dream beast was a divine beast thousands of years ago, but because it angered the divine power, it was cursed and turned into a monster that feeds on human essence and is never full.

The monks' dreams are their best food.

This kind of monster can arouse the deepest fear in people's hearts, and then suck the essence of the monks without anyone knowing. If you indulge in it in a dream, the final outcome is death.

This was the first time that Li Zhaoyue saw a monster other than a spirit, and he became extremely nervous.

In the darkness, the monster's panting was getting closer and closer. Li Zhaoyue was covered in sweat and huddled in Xu Xing's arms, not daring to move.

The young man in blue tensed his back, gently hugged the girl's trembling body, and patted her back to comfort her.

"I will protect my senior sister." Xu Xing wrote slowly on her palm.

Xu Xing leaned against the door, his back against the shadow, his eyes like water, full of determination.

An ordinary girl would have understood the deep meaning of these words and would have been too embarrassed to raise her head after seeing this. However, Li Zhaoyue did not understand. She just swallowed hard, looked into those light brown eyes, took out a small stack of talisman paper from her bag, and smiled.

Her eyes changed, and she pushed Xu Xing away and began to scatter talisman paper frantically.

Dark yellow talisman paper suddenly flew all over the sky, mixed with the sharp cries of the dream beast, Xu Xing's shouts, and He Shuyu's curses, and finally turned into a pool of fire, burning the dream beast to ashes.

When the fire was extinguished and the talisman paper scattered, Li Zhaoyue found He Shuyu, whose head was covered in black smoke.

"You...can you please stop attacking indiscriminately?" He Shuyu was seriously injured by the talisman and spat out a mouthful of blood.

Li Zhaoyue's stagnant thoughts slowly started to move, and he subconsciously wanted to help He Shuyu, but was pulled away by someone.

It’s Xu Xing.

He was unharmed, only his hair was a little messy.

"She is not He Shuyu." He said in a deep voice.

Li Zhaoyue blinked in confusion, and her gaze suddenly stopped at the empty space on He Shuyu's waist.

Everyone knows that He Shuyu is extremely talented and never lets go of his sword.

But at this moment, the Li Ci Sword, which He Shuyu regarded as a treasure, was nowhere to be seen.

She slowly approached Xu Xing and held on to her bag.

He Shuyu gritted his teeth and angrily said to Li Zhaoyue, "Are you doubting me? This Xu Xing beside you may not be real!"

"Shouldn't he be wearing the longevity lock you gave him? You can take it out and have a look."

There was no aura of the longevity lock on Xu Xing.

Li Zhaoyue was trapped between the two men and retreated in panic.

In the gloomy darkness, one green and one blue were hidden in the shadows, and mottled moonlight shone through the broken window. Li Zhaoyue looked frightened and suddenly raised his eyes.

I saw a pair of blood-red eyes appearing in the hole.

The eyes were fixed on Li Zhaoyue, followed by the intermittent crying sounds from before.

Miserable and bleak, like the whisper of a ghost.

The figures of Xu Xing and He Shuyu became increasingly blurred, while those eyes became increasingly clear.

Li Zhaoyue lost consciousness.

She was woken up by the shaking.

It felt like she was sitting in a small box, being carried by someone. The road was uneven, and she was swaying back and forth in the cramped space, feeling extremely uncomfortable.

She struggled to sit up, but hit the roof with a bang.

The footsteps outside suddenly stopped.

Li Zhaoyue was frightened and lay back down.

There was a rustling sound above her head, and then the lid was opened, and a ray of moonlight leaked out from outside, hitting her eyelids.

There was that strange panting sound again, accompanied by a pungent smell of decay. Li Zhaoyue suppressed his nausea and dared not move.

There was another rustling sound, and after a moment, the lid was closed and the surroundings fell into darkness again.

Li Zhaoyue suddenly opened his eyes and breathed rapidly.

Where she lies now is a coffin.

The discovery sent chills down her spine.

But in the face of danger, no amount of complaints or fears were of any use. Li Zhaoyue could only grab the bag on his waist with trembling hands, but he found nothing.

What the palm touched was not soft fabric, but a hard corpse.

She raised her hand in fear and found that her palm was dry and even made a crackling sound due to her movement.

She is now a dried corpse.

The sudden change caught her off guard. Li Zhaoyue bit her lower lip, not knowing what to do.

At this moment, the shaking coffin suddenly stopped, and the silent space was suddenly filled with a burst of joyful sounds, accompanied by the sound of drums and gongs, as well as shrill screams and cries.

"No! You can't do this, give it back to me, give it back to me!" was the woman's crazy scream.

"You bunch of hypocritical people, why, why is it me?!"

"The life of the young lady of the master's family is precious, and the lives of us common people are not precious, are they not also lives?"

"I will never let you go even if I die!"

The woman's screams were finally silenced in the yard.

Li Zhaoyue only felt that the coffin lid was opened by something again, and a pair of slender hands stretched in, carrying the smell of fresh blood.

"Don't open your eyes."

Warmth came from between my eyebrows, it was Xu Xing.

This contact was extremely short, because the next moment, Xu Xing did something unknown, screams broke out in the yard, the sky was filled with red light, and even Li Zhaoyue, who had closed her eyes, was affected.

She quietly opened her eyes and saw Xu Xing, covered in blood, inserting a sword into the woman's throat with a cruel method and a cold expression.

It was as if life was nothing but grass to him, and he killed people without mercy.

For some reason, Li Zhaoyue felt a strong fear in her heart. She just stared at Xu Xing until he noticed her and walked towards her covered in blood.

He seemed to want to stretch out his hand, but paused because his palms were covered in blood. He wanted to find a clean place on his clothes, but found that he was already covered in blood.

There was a dark glow in Xu Xing's eyes. Looking at Li Zhaoyue's astonished expression, he forced a very light smile.

He said, I asked you to close your eyes.

The damp moonlight fell into his eyes, where tenderness and murderous intent intertwined, a chasm that was incomparably sharp. She had only seen such a look in the eyes of certain wild beasts: that tenderness was a coaxing of prey, intended only to strangle it before it knew it was there.

Li Zhaoyue lowered her eyes, struggled to climb out of the coffin, looked at her body that had returned to normal, and carefully held his hand.

"I'm not afraid of you." Her voice was still trembling. "I'm afraid of blood."

"Xu Xing, I've been afraid of blood since I was a child. This has nothing to do with you. You don't have to blame yourself."

The night was dark and the sky was filled with blood. Xu Xing pinched the dried blood on his fingertips and was stunned for the first time.

He looked very handsome when he was surprised. His usually half-open almond-shaped eyes were now wide open, and with the blood-red splash at the corners of his eyes, he looked inexplicably cute.

But this surprise was quickly covered up by the usual smile.

"I know," Xu Xing smiled, his light brown eyes looking at her intently, "Senior Sister is so kind, I know you won't be afraid of me."

His appearance of trusting her so much was too deceptive. Li Zhaoyue trembled and held his hand even tighter.

Xu Xing's hands were large, with distinct joints, slender and lean, like a flawless piece of white jade. Li Zhaoyue's hands were a little fleshy, and because of the abundant energy and blood, they were very hot.

His cold palms slowly felt a little warmer because of her grip.

The evil spirits in the yard had not been completely killed. The remaining group, fearing the red light on Xu Xing's body, hesitated and huddled together, not daring to move forward.

"Senior Sister, close your eyes." Xu Xing looked at Li Zhaoyue gently. Without waiting for her to answer, he grabbed her hand with one hand, covered her eyes with the other, and took her aside.

A breeze blew on the side of his face, and Li Zhaoyue shrank his neck. Another scream was heard in the distance.

The sound of sword energy cutting through the air and piercing into flesh was extremely clear. Gradually, the screams became smaller and smaller. In the end, only Xu Xing's breathing remained in Li Zhaoyue's ears.

"It's over." The young man's voice sounded with a smile. Li Zhaoyue opened her eyes and was surprised to see Xu Xing's clothes completely stained red.

"Are you okay?" She took out a handkerchief and wanted to wipe him, but she didn't know where to start.

Xu Xing decisively took the handkerchief and wiped his face a few times. His eyes curved and his pretty face, which was originally a bit feminine, looked even more charming with the blood color.

His smile was a little crazy, and his eyes were filled with excitement, like a child who had found a fun toy and was extremely happy.

She subconsciously took a few steps back and asked in confusion, "You're injured, why are you smiling so happily?"

"Injured? Ah Yue must have made a mistake. The blood on my body is from someone else." He raised his eyebrows.

"Oh... I understand." Li Zhaoyue quickly lowered his head, grabbed his sleeves in fear, and stopped talking.

Xu Xing lowered his eyes, quickly returning to his usual gentle demeanor. He extended his hand towards Li Zhaoyue: "The nightmare is over. Let's go."